BT "Payment Processing Fee" !!!!!!?!?!

uktim29

Short_Legs wrote: »

They say they have reduced line rental by £3 so in effect you are 'only' paying another £1.50 per quarter. They also say this is legal. Surely not?

Erm are you basically saying you think it's illegal for a company to state it's charges and charge them!

billsavings

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=400053

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=433971

Fuzzy_2

Hi

Just wanted to say to the OP, we had our latest bill, which had the £4.50 payment fee. I hadn't got around to sorting the DD to avoid this; so I called BT explained that we hadn't received anything from BT so we could set up the DD, but would like to do so, and as we were willing to do this, would they waiver the £4.50 fee? Low and behold this was easy to do, and the £4.50 will be deducted off the next DD payment.

I was nice and friendly to the customer service chap, explained we were busy and this must have slipped by us. Just goes to show that they can bend the rules if you're polite and friendly.

Heinz

Fuzzy wrote: »

Just wanted to say to the OP, we had our latest bill, which had the £4.50 payment fee. I hadn't got around to sorting the DD to avoid this; so I called BT explained that we hadn't received anything from BT so we could set up the DD, but would like to do so, and as we were willing to do this, would they waiver the £4.50 fee? Low and behold this was easy to do, and the £4.50 will be deducted off the next DD payment.

And in true Money-Saver style, you recovered (saved) £4.50 you had been charged merely by setting up a payment method which will, in future, save you £4.50 every 3 months.

Dave_Brooker

Short_Legs wrote: »

Hi

Newbie here - always checking this site but only just registered to post.

Quick question:

My parents have just received their quarterly phone bill from BT and on it is a "Payment Processing Fee" of £4.50. BT say this is because they don't pay by direct debit and that from 1st May 2007 all non-direct debit customers will have to pay it. They say they have reduced line rental by £3 so in effect you are 'only' paying another £1.50 per quarter. They also say this is legal. Surely not?

BT also state that this is a fee they have always stood for their customers (yeah, right - £4.50 per quarter for millions of customers, for the past 60 years or so - all out of the goodness of their hearts - oh I feel all warm and fuzzy inside!! :rotfl: )

We are inclined to send a cheque for the bill, minus £4.50, being the cost of OUR payment processing fee...

Any ideas on whether this is legal or whether there is a way of getting around it, other than paying by direct debit, which they don't want to do.

Thanks very kindly!!

Helen

Isn't this a penalty fee much like the banks ones that are all being reclaimed?

Cardew

Dave_Brooker wrote: »

Isn't this a penalty fee much like the banks ones that are all being reclaimed?

No.

They have simply increased the rental charges. Have you read the posts above?

antoniomontana

many people don't like paying via DD as they take the money out no questions asked and if theres a mistake with the bill than the onus is on you to get the money back from them which can be difficult

RadoJo

'many people don't like paying via DD as they take the money out no questions asked and if theres a mistake with the bill than the onus is on you to get the money back from them which can be difficult'

That's almost entirely incorrect - under the direct debit guarantee your provider is obliged to send you details of the amount before billing you and your bank is obliged to ensure that any errors arising in the process are refunded to you, without you having to contact your provider (unless of course you need to ascertain where the error has come from, but you would need to do that if they just sent you a bill for the wrong amount anyway).

Many people seem to not understand the direct debit guarantee, even though it really is very simple. Here is the financial ombudsman's page on the matter.

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/ombudsman-news/27/27-directdebit-guarantee.htm

Bamber19

Is this a throwback from the bank charges claimback that now everybody believes it to be illegal for companies to make a profit? That everything must cost exactly what it costs the company? You know that the 99p on the shelf for those cakes you bought from Tesco didn't actually represent the cost to them. How very dare they!

marleyboy

RadoJo wrote: »

'many people don't like paying via DD as they take the money out no questions asked and if theres a mistake with the bill than the onus is on you to get the money back from them which can be difficult'

That's almost entirely incorrect -

Then how can you explain Virgin Media taking too much out of my DD (nearly every Month), and even managing to get another DD from me on top of the one they have, without any permission or knowledge by me? Only to have them pay me back the oversight by reducing other bills.

As for this putting my Bank a/c into overdraw, I had to send VM details of the excess bank fee's as a result of it, so they could re-imburse me? As they HAD taken excess money out of my bank with no questions asked and as it was a VM mistake the onus WAS on me to claim my money back. And thats ENTIRELY correct.